Natural Law

• It is a telos and deontological based ethical model


  Everything has a purpose - our goal is to get to heaven with God
• Ethics is using reason to discover the natural law within our nature and conforming our actions to it


  God designed everything by instilling telos into it to direct it before its good end
• eudemonia - human flourishing
• The four tiers of law are the ultimate source of moral goodness
• Eternal Law - Gods plan built into everything that exists - we cannot truly understand this as we are fallen
• Divine law - Gods revelation to humans through the bible (scriptures)
• Natural Law - created in human nature by God, discoverable using reason.


  Synderesis principle - good should be done and evil avoided
• 5 primary precepts within natural law

  Reproduction, Society, Worship, Education, Life
• Aquinas developed this model from Aristotle and is a catholic
• conscientia - the ability to apply reason using the primary precepts - the judgment we acquire is the secondary precept
• interior and exterior acts - both our intentions and our actions must be good
• the double effect - one action can have two effects - if the intention is good but the consequence of the action is bad, it is still a good action e.g. abortion to save a mothers life